All the cards

55

I materialised in a warehouse. I walked forward to find a vampire covered in bites chained to a chair.
"Hayley!" I frowned, seeing the hybrid stood above her. She looked at me and grabbed an axe. I sped to her side, stopping her from landing the killing blow. "Enough."
"Not enough." She shook her head. "Why are you here?"
"I already told you. I'm not leaving you. And I won't let you sink into this destructive hole. I'd expect this of my siblings, not of you."
"These people killed Jackson."
"Murdering them is not the way to honour him." I sighed waving my hand over the vampire, healing her, wiping her memories and sending her away. "I won't let you do this."
"You can't stop me." She tried to walk past me but I stepped in front of her.
"I can and I will."
"Just leave me alone, Amity."
"I can't do that, Hayley."
"Why?"
"Because you're more than a friend. You're my sister, and I'm never going to let you suffer alone." Hayley's face began to crumble and I gave her a hug. "You're a part of Always and forever, you know."
"I'm angry, Amity." She whispered. "So angry and I need to avenge Jackson."
"No, Hayley. You need to mourn him. Things won't get better until you do."
"Is that what you did? Because last I heard, you were still hung up on Abraham."
"I was. Freya and Amira helped, actually. Kind of forced me to face my feelings, and you know what? I'm kind of ready to let Abraham go. Of course I'm never going to forget him, but I'm at a place where I can move on." I continued, noticing her look. "I'm not saying you have to move on, but you do have to let him go."
"How?"
"For one, honour his memory. Don't go out to violently torture those responsible only to come home to your daughter and play mommy. If there was one thing he wanted, it was for Hope to have a good, peaceful life. Wasn't it?"
"Yeah." She said softly.
"So come home, see your daughter. If there's anything my family should have taught you, it's that the violence will always follows you home." I held out my hand and she grabbed it.

I quietly tiptoed out of Hayley's room a few hours later, and went to go check on Izzy and Hope. Amira was leaving the room.
"Hey." She smiled.
"Hi."
"How's Hayley?"
"She's strong. She'll survive."
"Yeah."
"Why aren't you down there with Kol? I thought you'd be checking to make sure he wouldn't have died every other second." I teased and she rolled her eyes. "I'm kidding. But seriously, you can go see him. Having you as a built in nanny is nice, but you deserve a life." She shook her head, walking away. I walked closer to the room. Izzy and Hope were in their playpen. "I think you guys might be getting a little too old for this." I said and Hope looked up at me. "Come on." I unlatched the door. "You need some food in you." I let them toddle after me, leading then to the kitchen. Nik usually had a maid or ten in there.

We passed the room where my siblings were seemingly in the middle of a spell.
"Daddy." Hope recognised her father and I smiled. Kol glanced over and stopped.
"It's really been this long?" He frowned and I nodded.
"I'm sorry, brother."
"Yeah." He shrugged. He sped over, crouching down and Hope cowered away, moving behind my leg.
"She's a shy one." I shrugged. Izzy, however, stepped forward and reached up. Kol leaned down and picked him up.
"Hey, kid. I'm your uncle Kol." He greeted. "I'll be your favourite, trust me."
"As long as you don't die again." Amira said dryly.
"She has a point." I told him. "Well you guys can continue, because I still need to feed them." I grabbed Izzy and set him on the floor ushering he and Hope forward.

It wasn't long before I gave up on staying out of whatever my siblings were planning. I walked downstairs to them, my arms folded.
"You will not run." I scoffed. Nik looked up at me.
"Amity."
"Let them come. I won't let anybody hurt you. I won't let anybody hurt any of you."
"You can't protect me from the hoards of enemies I've accumulated over the centuries."
"I've stood by and watched you ridiculously pretend you don't have another way but this is where I draw the line. You will not run. Anyone who comes will have to go through me, and that's no easy feat."
"What are you going to do. You don't kill, Amity, and we're in a war."
"Death is not the only solution. You have a daughter and you need to fight to live for her, sure, but you don't have to kill. Now you can disagree all you want, but it's time we did things my way."
"We've done things your way, Amity. We've been doing things your way. Killing Dahlia, you made her explode. Keeping Esther alive- we don't even know what you did with her."
"I don't want to kill, Niklaus, because in case you forgot it's my son who'll face the consequences."
"Of course I haven't forgotten. I've bricked Aurora up in a tomb, Tristan's in the middle of the ocean, stuck in a barrier spell. Anyone who might have ties to our family, who might decide to linger amongst us, we've found creative ways to get rid of them."
"And yet murder is still on your mind."
"These are people who'd have no business watching over us in death."
"Like Silas?" I crossed my arms. "The truth is Niklaus, we don't know who would come after us. And I'd rather not risk it. And even if they didn't haunt him, we'd still have centuries worth of enemies, and if you managed to kill them all, there will always be more willing to take their place."
"So what is your idea?"
"Mercy." Amity smiled. "But first things first, this might not be a battleground yet, but it will soon. It's no place for children. Tonight you and Hayley will go and take Hope and Izzy with you. They'll be safe with the wolves. With Mary."
"Hayley?"
"That sounds like a good plan to start." Amira said standing by her grandmother.
"We'll cloak all of you, and while you go, I'm going to get the last of the white oak and we'll destroy it."
"That seems a simple enough plan."
"Then..." Amity looked at Amira and grabbed her hand reassuringly. "Together as a family, we can find a way to show everyone Niklaus's sire line is still linked to him."